Subject Knowledge and Perceptions of Bioenergy among School Teachers in India: Results from a Survey

Pradipta Halder, Sari Havu-Nuutinen, Janne Pietarinen, Anas Zyadin and Paavo Pelkonen
Additional contact information
Pradipta Halder: School of Forest Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu 80101, Finland
Sari Havu-Nuutinen: School of Applied Educational Science and Teacher Education, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu 80101, Finland
Janne Pietarinen: School of Applied Educational Science and Teacher Education, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu 80101, Finland
Anas Zyadin: School of Forest Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu 80101, Finland
Paavo Pelkonen: School of Forest Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu 80101, Finland

Resources, 2014, vol. 3, issue 4, 1-15

Abstract: Teachers’ knowledge and perceptions of bioenergy, and their motivation to teach such a topic, can largely determine the success of implementing bioenergy related education in schools. The study aimed to explore science teachers’ knowledge and perceptions of bioenergy in India. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted among 28 science teachers from four urban schools in India. Results indicated that the science teachers were fairly knowledgeable regarding bioenergy and they also demonstrated positive perceptions of bioenergy. In addition, they were positive towards the prospect of receiving more information to increase their own knowledge of bioenergy. However, the science teachers appeared to have some misconceptions regarding the issue of CO 2 emission from using bioenergy. It also emerged that although the existing Science syllabus for Grade X in Indian schools includes a topic on bioenergy, the majority of the science teachers were not aware of it. Policy makers and educators are recommended to provide science teachers more support to improve their capacity for teaching energy and environmental topics in schools in India. In addition, an improvement of the current learning and teaching environment in Indian schools could help teachers to deliver energy and environmental education more effectively to their students.

Keywords: bioenergy; teachers; knowledge; perceptions; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/3/4/599/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/3/4/599/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jresou:v:3:y:2014:i:4:p:599-613:d:41217

Access Statistics for this article

Resources is currently edited by Ms. Donchian Ma

More articles in Resources from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().